


A Friend In Need

by im_fairly_witty



Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types, Wiedźmin | The Witcher Series - Andrzej Sapkowski
Genre: Big Snake, Geralt actually needs help, Geralt's gonna be okay but only because his bard didn't stay put, His best, M/M, Panic, hurt comfort, protective cuddling, what is Jaskier doing?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:13:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22876864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_fairly_witty/pseuds/im_fairly_witty
Summary: Jaskier doesn’t actually mind snakes as a rule, but when Geralt accepts a contract for a snake big enough to swallow cattle Jaskier's perfectly happy staying back at the inn when Geralt tells him to....well, happy to stay put until two whole days have passed and Geralt still hasn't returned.[A oneshot written for @tetramancer on tumblr for their lovely art!]
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia & Jaskier | Dandelion, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Comments: 17
Kudos: 475





	A Friend In Need

Jaskier didn’t actually mind snakes as a rule, most animals that avoided him when he returned the favor had his respect, but when Geralt had accepted a contract for a snake said to be swallowing _cattle_ Jaskier had been perfectly happy staying back at the inn when Geralt told him to.

But that had been two days ago, which should have been plenty of time for Geralt to track the beast, slay it, and then return safely. Far too much time for nothing to have gone wrong. Far too much time for Jaskier to be sitting alone at the inn, looking out the window like a worried sailor’s wife.

Which was why he was now picking his way through a swampy forest as dusk fell, having waited all day in hopes that Geralt would drag himself back from whatever had happened, but finally not having been able to stand it anymore. 

He knew Geralt was probably fine—he always was—and that he’d yell at him for not staying put—he always did.

But…what if he wasn’t? 

“Really he can’t blame me for wanting to check in on him anyway.” Jaskier said to himself, clutching his lute and only half yelping as his foot slipped a bit on a muddy embankment. “I’m just out here doing research, getting material for songs, not because I’m worried. Everything’s fine anyway, I just-”

His nose wrinkled as the sickly sweet smell of rotting flesh crept through the air around him. The scent of death that he’d become all to familiar with during his travels with the witcher.

“Okay, so something’s dead,” Jaskier whispered to himself, his voice jumping up an octave as he continued to creep forward through the underbrush in the fading twilight. 

He was also starting to realize he was about to be very lost in the dark soon if he didn’t actually find Geralt. 

“Death smell is only to be expected, right?” he continued to mumble to himself, swallowing hard as he swept aside low branches with his lute-free hand. “It’s the swamp, there’s a snake on the loose. Could be one of those snake eaten cows for all I know, it could be-”

His hand hit something. He felt his stomach twist almost before his brain could even register that the something was very much not a tree or a rock. It was very big, and very cold, and very scaly.

Jaskier made an undignified kind of muffled squeal as he clumsily leapt back, free arm pinwheeling a bit as he caught himself against a tree. But nothing moved, nothing lunged or pounced or most importantly slithered. So…that was good, yeah?

Jaskier cleared his throat, making a manly growly sound like Geralt to make up for the squeal, as he moved closer to investigate the massive not moving scaly thing. It seemed to be wedged into the trees tightly, making Jaskier have to walk around it to find a clear look at it. 

“This is fine.” Jaskier said quietly in a high pitched sing-songy voice as he crept around what even in the dim light was very clearly a snake more massive than even his nightmares would have dared to cook up. “This is fine, this is fine, this is- GERALT!” Jaskier cried, eyes widening as he spotted an all too familiar silver studded black leather covered arm caught between the coils of the snake. 

If he’d had a lick of sense he would have taken off in fright, but instead his lute dropped to the ground with a hollow thud and Jaskier found himself haphazardly scrambling up the enormous scaly coil. From atop the mess he could finally see what he was looking at in full: a truly monstrous snake laying dead with a silver sword through its skull, its last act in life having evidently been squeezing the life out of the witcher who was lying silent and nearly hidden in it coils. 

“No!” Jaskier cried, face pale as adrenaline surged through him. “No no no, Geralt? Geralt wake up, can you hear me?”

A leg here, and arm there. It took Jaskier far too long to work out where the rest of Geralt even was, having to make his best guess and heave at a coil of snake as wide around as a barrel, praying it didn’t make anything worse as he hefted the dead weight with strength he certainly wouldn’t have managed were he not buzzing with fright. 

He gasped as the coil slipped over the rest of the snake, revealing Geralt’s head and torso.

“Geralt.” Jaskier panted, dropping down beside the witcher, getting right up in his face as he frantically searched for a pulse, trying to listen for breath. 

His skin was pale but it was always pale. He didn’t seem to have too much blood on him, but judging by the snake’s style any damage it had done wasn’t likely to be the visible kind anyway.

Jaskier held his fingers to Geralt’s pulse point, commanding himself not to panic just yet as he felt nothing. Because he knew witchers had low heart rates, and he knew that if Geralt had been suffocating slowly under half a dead snake monster it would be even lower, and-

Jaskier started breathing again as he felt it, the very low, very slow heartbeat he was looking for. Geralt was still alive. 

“Okay, okay okay good.” Jaskier said, gasping for air as if he were the one who’d nearly asphyxiated. “Let’s get you out of this alright?” 

Geralt’s legs were still trapped under even more snake. A truly worrying amount of snake really since that snake was pinned down under even _more_ snake. But Jaskier had to try. He wormed his way down into the coil beside Geralt, trying very hard not to think of the death smell covering him now, and braced his swamp muddy boots against the scaly side. He pushed, slid down a little, readjusted, took another breath and shoved as much as he could. 

“Could really use some of your mutated strength right about now.” Jaskier panted to Geralt, needing something to fill the tense silence. 

He readjusted and snarled as he braced against the other side of the coil and heaved again. The coil shifted a little, then kept sliding, slipping heavily off to the side, leaving Geralt’s unconscious body free to breathe and hopefully recover.

Jaskier let out a breathy laugh that was part relief and part lightheadedness as his adrenaline started to drain away, leaving him with only worry and some shakiness left behind as he moved back to Geralt. 

“Alright Geralt, you did say there was only one snake right?” Jaskier muttered, checking again for the witcher’s pulse as he looked around nervously. “Monster snakes don’t travel in packs do they? A pack of snakes? That doesn’t _sound_ like a thing. I hope not.” 

Geralt was silent, making Jaskier wish very badly that the man would wake up and roll his eyes or growl or huff like he was used to. Anything was better than looking dead.

But no. He wasn’t dead. He was just recovering, he had a pulse and everything. His breathing was shallow, but it was still there. It was going to be fine. Probably. If he just waited long enough for Geralt to _wake up_.

“I can’t carry you.” Jaskier said, brushing Geralt’s hair back from his face. It hurt to see him so helpless and still. “I’m already shaky from all this nonsense. Besides, I don’t know how badly you’re really hurt until you can wake up and tell me, so I don’t know if that would make it even worse. And you _are_ going to wake up, that’s not up for discussion. You’re so cold, you’re not usually this cold are you? I don’t think so, now I can’t remember.”

Jaskier chewed his lip in indecision, looking around as night fell in earnest, making the swampy forest just about as darkly foreboding as he could imagine it possibly being. Well one thing was for certain, he was not leaving Geralt here alone, and if he couldn’t move him then that meant Jaskier was staying here too. 

He swallowed, being as gentle as he could as he shifted Geralt’s unconscious form, pulling the man into his lap to lean back against him. Jaskier wrapped his arms securely around Geralt’s chest, taking care to keep him steady without pressing hard enough to aggrivate any unseen injuries. 

“It’s alright.” Jaskier said quietly, resting his chin on Geralt’s shoulder, trying not to shiver or to think too hard about what kinds of creatures might stalk the swamp in the dark. “I’m not going anywhere, and you’re going to wake up and it’s going to be alright. I’m sorry I can’t do much more, but I won’t leave you, I promise.”

Jaskier nearly missed it when Geralt shifted, ever so slightly. Jaskier nearly felt like crying in relief, but somehow managed to keep it together.

“See? You’re alright, if you’re moving that means you’re healing inside.” Jaskier said, swallowing hard as he heard Geralt’s breathing deepen, sounding more like real sleep instead of the wispy half dead kind he’d had only a minute ago. “You’re going to be alright. You’re probably still going to be mad at me for leaving the inn but I won’t mind, I promise.”

He tried to steady his own breathing as he hid his face against Geralt’s shoulder, hugging him as close as he dared. 

He knew for a fact he wasn’t going to get a bit of sleep tonight, but that was a price he was more than willing to pay if it meant Geralt returning too. 

**Author's Note:**

> Come hang out over on tumblr where I write, reblog, and draw the boys too! @im-fairly-whitty


End file.
